Chesley Taft & Associates LLC Purchases 583 Shares of Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META)

Chesley Taft & Associates LLC boosted its holdings in Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 36,810 shares of the social networking company’s stock after purchasing an additional 583 shares during the quarter. Chesley Taft & Associates LLC’s holdings in Meta Platforms were worth $18,560,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Sarasin & Partners LLP raised its position in Meta Platforms by 21.9% in the 2nd quarter. Sarasin & Partners LLP now owns 721,832 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $363,962,000 after buying an additional 129,677 shares during the last quarter. Financial Partners Group Inc raised its holdings in shares of Meta Platforms by 9.3% in the second quarter. Financial Partners Group Inc now owns 2,142 shares of the social networking company’s stock valued at $1,080,000 after purchasing an additional 182 shares during the last quarter. Williams Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Meta Platforms during the second quarter valued at about $6,650,000. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. purchased a new position in Meta Platforms during the second quarter worth about $1,392,000. Finally, Vista Investment Partners LLC grew its position in Meta Platforms by 46.7% in the 2nd quarter. Vista Investment Partners LLC now owns 1,102 shares of the social networking company’s stock worth $556,000 after purchasing an additional 351 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 79.91% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have commented on META shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on shares of Meta Platforms from $525.00 to $585.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Roth Mkm boosted their price objective on Meta Platforms from $510.00 to $550.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $570.00 price objective on shares of Meta Platforms in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. TD Cowen lifted their target price on Meta Platforms from $530.00 to $600.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 10th. Finally, Raymond James increased their price target on shares of Meta Platforms from $550.00 to $600.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, July 1st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, thirty-three have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $574.41.

Insider Buying and Selling at Meta Platforms

In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,950 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $526.76, for a total value of $4,714,502.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 74,579 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,285,234.04. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, CFO Susan J. Li sold 8,950 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $526.76, for a total value of $4,714,502.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 74,579 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,285,234.04. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Jennifer Newstead sold 905 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $476.69, for a total transaction of $431,404.45. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 42,370 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,197,355.30. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 384,783 shares of company stock worth $194,001,589 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 13.71% of the company’s stock.

Meta Platforms Stock Performance

Shares of META opened at $529.28 on Tuesday. Meta Platforms, Inc. has a 12-month low of $276.03 and a 12-month high of $542.81. The company has a current ratio of 2.83, a quick ratio of 2.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The company has a market cap of $1.34 trillion, a PE ratio of 30.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 1.21. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $501.01 and a 200-day moving average price of $489.45.

Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The social networking company reported $5.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $4.70 by $0.46. The business had revenue of $39.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $38.26 billion. Meta Platforms had a net margin of 34.34% and a return on equity of 34.16%. Meta Platforms’s revenue for the quarter was up 22.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $3.23 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Meta Platforms, Inc. will post 20.5 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Meta Platforms Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 26th. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th were paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 14th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.38%. Meta Platforms’s dividend payout ratio is presently 11.49%.

About Meta Platforms

Meta Platforms, Inc engages in the development of products that enable people to connect and share with friends and family through mobile devices, personal computers, virtual reality headsets, and wearables worldwide. It operates in two segments, Family of Apps and Reality Labs. The Family of Apps segment offers Facebook, which enables people to share, discuss, discover, and connect with interests; Instagram, a community for sharing photos, videos, and private messages, as well as feed, stories, reels, video, live, and shops; Messenger, a messaging application for people to connect with friends, family, communities, and businesses across platforms and devices through text, audio, and video calls; and WhatsApp, a messaging application that is used by people and businesses to communicate and transact privately.